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Chicago Housing Health Partnership

An Evidence-Based Practice

Description

The Chicago Housing Health Partnership (CHHP) is a program coordinated by the AIDS Foundation of Chicago that seeks to reduce the hospitalization of chronically ill homeless individuals through case management. Chronically ill homeless individuals lack the permanent housing that is necessary to address their health needs and often rely on expensive, publically financed emergency room visits for primary care. CHHP case managers help provide housing through the Housing First model, an intervention strategy that seeks to place homeless individuals in stable housing immediately following the intervention rather than move them through a continuum of shelters and group houses before independent housing is provided. Case managers use existing housing resources to help secure permanent housing, either through federal or local funding. In addition to housing assistance, CHHP case managers help coordinate access to medical care and services. CHHP employs a tailored model of case management that recognizes the unique needs of their homeless clients (substance abuse history, sexuality, gender, etc....). Following its inception in 2003, CHHP has grown to include over 20 partners from the Chicago area.

Goal / Mission

The goal of the Chicago Housing Health Partnership is to use tailored case management to place chronically medically ill homeless individuals in stable, long-term housing and facilitate access to medical services.

Results / Accomplishments

The origins of the CHHP intervention model lie in an 18-month, randomized intervention trial conducted by the Cook County Bureau of Health. The trial recruited two groups of chronically ill homeless individuals from local hospitals, providing one group (n=201) with the experimental Housing First intervention and case management and the other group (n=204) with typical social services. After 18 months, the intervention group had fewer hospitalizations and emergency department visits (p=.03 and .007, respectively) than the usual care group. Following adjustment for baseline characteristics, the intervention group had lower rates of hospitalization, hospital days, and emergency department visits (rate reductions of 29% (p = .005), 29% (p= .01), and 24% (p = .03), respectively). The success of the trial led to the formation of the CHHP and the continued using of the Housing First intervention model to help address the health needs of the chronically ill homeless population.

About this Promising Practice

Organization(s)
AIDS Foundation of Chicago
Primary Contact
AIDS Foundation of Chicago
200 West Jackson Boulevard, Suite 2200,
Chicago, IL 60606
(312) 922-2322
afc_general@aidschicago.org
http://www.aidschicago.org/housing-home/chhp
Topics
Economy / Housing & Homes
Health / Health Care Access & Quality
Health / Other Conditions
Organization(s)
AIDS Foundation of Chicago
Date of publication
May 2009
Date of implementation
Sep 2003
Geographic Type
Urban
Location
Cook
For more details
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19417194
Target Audience
Adults

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An Evidence-Based Practice meets the following HCI criteria:

  1. The program description includes at a minimum: the sponsoring organization, program goals, program implementation steps, and outcomes that have demonstrated program success in achieving the program goal in one or more localities.
  2. The results from an evaluation of the program include quantitative measures showing improvement in the outcome(s) of interest after the implementation of the program (i.e. increase in smoking cessation, not just the delivery of a smoking cessation program). The outcome measure(s) is/are compared at relevant time periods before and after the intervention or program implementation. Alternatively, the evaluation study compares the outcome(s) between an intervention group and an appropriate control group.
  3. The study is of peer-review quality and presents numbers in a scientific manner; measurements of precision and reliability are included (e.g. confidence intervals, standard errors), results from statistical tests show a significant difference or change in the outcome measure(s), and relevant point estimates and p-values are presented. Note: if the results from an evaluation of a program are presented in a scientific manner and the outcome measure is improved compared to the baseline measurement or the control group but the difference is not statistically significant, the practice is classified as effective and not evidence-based.